Cambridge actor in 'The Whale' tackles topics surrounding obesity

Thursday

Mar 6, 2014 at 3:39 PMMar 6, 2014 at 3:39 PM

Preparing to play a man more than three times his size, actor John Kuntz looked beyond his character's 600-pound body to capture the emotional hunger fueling his morbid obesity."This is so much more than a play just about a fat guy. My character, Charlie, was always big," said the award-winning actor from Cambridge. "But he let it get out of control because he has always used food for solace as a way to cope with feelings of grief and guilt."Kuntz will be playing the leading role in the SpeakEasy Stage Company's New England premier of "The Whale,'' a moving, darkly funny and redemptive play which opens Friday, March 7, in Boston.Written by Samuel D. Hunter and winner of the 2013 Lucille Lortel award for best play, "The Whale'' examines Charlie's desperate attempts to reach out to his estranged wife and tart-tongued teenage daughter whom he abandoned 15 years before.Directed by David R. Gammons, "The Whale'' fuses biting humor and pathos as Charlie struggles to make amends to his family and understand how obesity and despair have trapped him before his heart gives out.If that sounds grim it isn't, insisted Kuntz who spends several hours a night squeezing into a "wildly hot'' body suit borrowed from a New York production and getting a prosthetic mask that transforms the 180-pound actor into a quarter-of-a-ton-plus bundle of regrets and dreams who's starved for redemption."This is really about a father trying to connect with his daughter and come to grips with his own mortality,'' said Kuntz. "When the audience sees Charlie, they have to confront their own stereotypes.''Throughout "The Whale,'' Hunter weaves into the script allusions to Herman Melville's "Moby Dick'' and the biblical tale of Jonah and the whale as he explores Charlie's tangled relationship over five days with the family he abandoned, his online literature students, a kindly home nurse and and a young Mormon missionary who stops by.A long-time fixture as an actor and playwright in the Boston theater scene, Kuntz said, "I've never done anything like this before.''"Getting ready to play Charlie is such a literal transformation,'' he said.But how does the 180-pound Cohasett native who was a founding company member of the Actors' Shakespeare Project know how a 600-pound recluse from Idaho who can barely move from his sofa feels?To inhabit Charlie's body, even during rehearsals Kuntz crawls into the 60-pound foam-padded fat suit which resembles a giant beanbag that he wears under Charlie's clothes to familiarize the four other actors with his character's girth. Before performances, costume designer Gail Astrid Buckley and her team will spend four hours applying a prosthetic latex mask and lots of makeup "on John's adorable face'' to give him the neck, lower face and jowls of a man twice as big a Patriots lineman Vince Wilfork.As an actor, Kuntz said he's has "to sell the idea'' to the audience that Charlie weighs 600 pounds - while wearing a 60-pound body suit - and only getting off the couch four times."Charlie and I are similar in many ways,'' he said. "We're teachers and gay men. There's a sense of loss I can relate to.''Kuntz said he accepted the role of Charlie because it offers many of the same pleasures and creative challenges - only "deepened and expanded'' - he discovered in his first high school plays "pretending'' to be someone else."As I got older, I found people so interesting. When you interpret a character, you use your psychology and imagination to figure out why they do something. Transforming myself into Charlie is all those things wrapped in one package,'' he said.As Charlie's heart problems worsen, Kuntz make his movements more labored and punctuates his speech with wheezing.Kuntz predicted "The Whale'' will appeal to a broad spectrum of audience members."Despite the serious subject matter, it's very funny with sharply comic performances,'' he said. "It's entertaining, tragic and uplifting. I love plays like that.''Growing up in Boxford, Mass., Buckley feels her career as a costume designer might have begun when her mother and grandmother taught her to knit and sew. Taking part in high school plays, she discovered "acting was easy but costume designing was more interesting.''Buckley entered Boston University planning to be a lawyer and graduated with a fine arts degree in costume design. Working on her twenty-second show with SpeakEasy, she described her job as "helping others to tell a story.''"I look at how the playwright interprets a character and try to help create that character by what they look like,'' she said.After Gammons decided to stage "The Whale,'' they decided to rent the $5,000 body suit from a prior production to use the savings for other costumes, props and lighting.For Buckley, the principal challenge of "The Whale" has been applying a latex prosthetic on Kuntz's lower face that makes his head look like it belongs on a giant body while allowing him to use his mouth and eyes to express emotion.In a culture that idealizes youth and beauty, she aimed at making Kuntz's character appear "sympathetic'' but not grotesque."We don't want to alienate people by John's appearance,'' said Buckley. "The challenge is to create a fully-formed character. People will be riveted when they see John. I want him to be fascinating but also tragic. You'd have to be hard-hearted not to be moved by this play."An award-winning director, theater educator at Concord Academy and visual artist, Gammons jumped at the chance to bring "The Whale'' to SpeakEasy.After reading the screenplay, he said the story "really spoke to me'' because "I'm drawn to a character who was fundamentally damaged and reaching out through the pain and suffering for redemption.''"I loved its sensibility. There's a really interesting tension between humor and seriousness. I love the darkness between humor and seriousness,'' he said.Gammons directed his first play, an adaption of a Stephen King short story, in high school. He earned a degree in visual and environmental studies at Harvard University and after graduating from the American Repertory theater Institute's directing program and has directed more than 20 plays, earning numerous awards."I always knew I wanted to be a director rather than an actor. I've always been intrigued by the idea of creating a world, imagining a world with its own rules. As a visual artist, my interest isn't just in creating a world but creating an experience of space, time and language,'' he said.Gammons stressed that despite Charlie's morbid obesity "The Whale'' has a universal theme and appeal."All the characters are damaged in one way or another. But they're desperate for help and to help each other. It's profoundly moving and sad,'' he said. "But there's real hope. I think it relates to all people the way we reach out to each other for wholeness and connection.''"The Whale"WHEN: March 7 to April 5 WHERE: Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston TICKETS: Start at $25 INFO: 617-933-8600; www.speakeasystage.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.